The Importance Of Book Genre

Filed under Get Published.

Book GenreWhen preparing your book for submission to an agent or publisher, it is essential that you define your book’s genre correctly.

The reason for this is that the genre of your book will determine the agents and publishers you will eventually approach. Get it wrong and your book is doomed to rejection.

The reason is that publishers are set up to sell one type of genre, even large publishers are split into genre defined departments and imprints. The reason is that each genre requires its own set of unique skills in order to produce, market and sell a book.

You can see how selling a cook book is a very different prospect to selling a horror novel. They have different readers, but also different bookshop buyers, marketing approaches and design aspects. This means publishers have an internal team dedicated to selling one type of genre. It is your duty as a writer to correctly define your book’s genre and then choose the agents and publishers who are set up to create and sell books of your chosen genre.

How you determine your book’s genre is not straight forward. The development of online bookstores such as Amazon, have created some debate over a definitive list of genre. The reality is that though all of the publishing industry agree on the broad genres, there is much debate as we split into sub-genres.

My advice for a first time writer is to turn to Amazon to help define your book’s genre. My tip would be to collect a list of five to ten titles you feel are similar to your own. Then plunge into Amazon and see how each is categorised. This should give you a pretty clear picture of your book’s genre.

One word of warning – please don’t get dragged into the rabbit hole that is sub-genre. In some genres, the sub-genre is important (I am thinking Sci Fi). However, as a rule of thumb, keep the genre as broad as possible. This will maximise your chance of success.

Any thoughts on genre?

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  • http://principlesoffailure.blogspot.com/ SHerdegen

    Thanks for this post. I had not given much thought to classifying my writing before but now I can see how important that is.

    • garysmailes

      Writers get caught up in genre without realising is just a tool for publishers and bookshops to make things that little bit easier. I once pitch an idea into a new genre I invented called Young Adult Non Fiction, as you may guess the book was never accepted, now I know why!

  • http://childrenspublishing.blogspot.com Advnturs in Children’s Pblshng

    Great advice. I’ve been trying to pigeon hole my YA into sub-genre’s and driving myself nuts. YA is one of those weird lump-it-all-together-and-stir genres for some agents, and some want to see it split between contemporary YA, fantasy, paranormal or whatever. But someone’s paranormal is another person’s fantasy. Or nightmare. Whichever.

    • garysmailes

      You need to look at the agent/publisher split. Is there different agent/publishers for each sub genre? If not just pitch as YA.

  • http://principlesoffailure.blogspot.com/ SHerdegen

    Thanks for this post. I had not given much thought to classifying my writing before but now I can see how important that is.

  • 4kidlit

    Great advice. I've been trying to pigeon hole my YA into sub-genre's and driving myself nuts. YA is one of those weird lump-it-all-together-and-stir genres for some agents, and some want to see it split between contemporary YA, fantasy, paranormal or whatever. But someone's paranormal is another person's fantasy. Or nightmare. Whichever.

  • garysmailes

    Writers get caught up in genre without realising is just a tool for publishers and bookshops to make things that little bit easier. I once pitch an idea into a new genre I invented called Young Adult Non Fiction, as you may guess the book was never accepted, now I know why!

  • garysmailes

    You need to look at the agent/publisher split. Is there different agent/publishers for each sub genre? If not just pitch as YA.

  • Kate

    My writing genre….? Um er. If only I knew. There should be one called ‘Whacky’. Could I get away with ‘NIche’?

    I suppose my writing ‘genre’ is kind of sci-fi/parody – except that I end up trying to be ‘proper’ and so get too literary and over-descriptive and then overcompensate by being too sparing when all I want to be is funny! I use lower-case letters for ‘my’ genre so as not to make my attempt look ‘official’.

  • Kate

    My writing genre….? Um er. If only I knew. There should be one called ‘Whacky’. Could I get away with ‘NIche’?

    I suppose my writing ‘genre’ is kind of sci-fi/parody – except that I end up trying to be ‘proper’ and so get too literary and over-descriptive and then overcompensate by being too sparing when all I want to be is funny! I use lower-case letters for ‘my’ genre so as not to make my attempt look ‘official’.

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